


We lost track of time

by whynotcherries



Series: Here, here, my family (you are my familiar) [10]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, I CAN FINALLY USE THAT TAG, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Overdose, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, No Incest, Pre-Canon, Protective Vanya Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, The Even Number Gang, at least in the later two parts, i hate that i have to tag that, minus diego, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22606174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whynotcherries/pseuds/whynotcherries
Summary: Klaus shows up at Vanya's door a few months after he moves out looking for someplace warm to sleep... and go through withdrawals.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: Here, here, my family (you are my familiar) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593757
Comments: 24
Kudos: 449





	1. We lost track of time

Vanya opens her door to find her brother (who she hasn’t seen in almost a year, mind you), standing outside her apartment, covered in snow, with no coat over his sheer shirt.

She has to blink twice to make sure that she’s not hallucinating, “ _Klaus_?” she asks in shock, eyes wide.

He nods, his shoulders pulled up higher than usual, and she automatically feels a sense of dread overcome her. Is everyone at home okay? What about Klaus, is _he_ okay? What could possibly have brought her brother, who _definitely_ thought she was the most boring person he’d met, to her home.

It’s silent for a minute before he picks his hand up and points into her apartment, “Can I come in?” he asks, and she’s pulled out of her head, opening the door wide for him to come inside.

“Of course, sorry,” she mumbles, closing the door behind him, “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” she asks, walking further into the apartment to grab him a towel.

He nods, shivering, as he takes the cloth and wraps it around his shoulders, “It’s all peachy, dear sister,” he smiles, and she can tell- she can _tell_ \- that something isn’t right.

He looks down, clearly battling with _something_ inside his head, something that she can’t see, “Yeah, I got it! Would you _shut up_?” he hisses, and she visibly recoils, leaning away from him.

He turns to face her and looks almost pained as he reaches out, “No, no, not you. I’m sorry- I’m sorry,” he mumbles, closing his eyes tight and bowing his head.

She can feel it in her gut- almost to a point of _pain_ \- that there is something, seriously, undeniably wrong with her brother. She reaches out and puts her hand on his arm, “Klaus,” he looks up at her as much as he has to in order to _kind of_ meet her eyes, “what’s going on?” she asks, keeping her voice soft.

He looks back down and she sees his lip trembling, “Can I- um, can I stay with you for a little while? I won’t take anything while I’m here, I promise, I just-”

She stops him, squeezing both of his arms, “Of course you can,” she says, looking up at him, smiling softly, “Let’s go run you a warm bath, come on,” she says, reaching down and taking his hand to lead him into her bathroom.

Later, they sit in her kitchen, each holding a cup of tea, or as Klaus so kindly put it, ‘leaf-juice’, both of them unsure of what to say.

Vanya, surprisingly, is the one who breaks the silence.

“So, can I ask why you need someplace to stay?” she asks, wrapping her hands tighter around her mug.

He sucks in a breath, and she almost feels bad for approaching the topic so quickly. “I- well, I left home a few months after you did, and I was- well, it was pretty impulsive, and I didn’t have a place to stay- which was _fine_ , I promise, but then it got _really_ damn cold,” he explains, “and B-” he stops himself, eyes going wide, “ _I_ didn’t want to freeze to death.”

She chuckles, “I don’t want you to freeze to death, either,” she assures, reaching out for his hand. He takes it and squeezes it.

He looks up, somewhere over her shoulder, and then draws in another deep, deep breath, clearly preparing for something, before he says, “I also, uhm- I wanted to maybe get clean,” he suggests.

Vanya freezes entirely, and for a second Klaus thinks that he’s about to be rejected, forced out, basically sentenced to _death_ with the storm that’s going on outside- and the next thing that he’s aware of is Vanya _throwing_ herself at him, her arms around his neck.

It might be silly of him, but he hadn’t realized that little Number Seven had cared so much whether or not he was high.

She leans back after a moment, “Yes. Of course, yes, you can do that,” she assures, sitting back in her chair, moving it closer to him, “What made you want to do that, though? I mean, it’s great! Really. Just- you’ve been doing… you know- since before we were even _teenagers_. Why do you want to get clean now?” she asks.

He looks at that spot behind her _again_ , and she’s ready to look to see if there’s something there, but she knows she won’t find anything, “I-” he chokes a little bit, letting out a short cough, “I overdosed about a week ago,” he explains, “and it… it’s not worth it, to do that, if I could die that way,” he looks unbelievably nervous- more nervous than Vanya has seen Klaus since his old personal training days- and it dawns on her.

 _Oh_. 

She reaches out and squeezes his hand again, “Ben was there, wasn’t he?” his head snaps up, “I don’t see why I shouldn’t believe you. I mean, you see dead people. It’s kinda your thing,” she chuckles.

It’s his turn to throw himself at her.

* * *

She hears Klaus calling her from the bathroom, and before she can stand up from the table, he’s walking towards her from the hallway.

She can’t even get a word out before he starts talking, “Are these the pills Dad put you on?” he asks, holding her little orange prescription bottle. 

‘ _Oh, god_ ,’ she thinks, ‘ _I left prescription medication alone with a recovering addict_ ’.

She nods, “I, uhm, yeah,” she confirms, “Why?” she asks, and she’s absolutely dreading whatever answer he’s about to give her.

His expression softens and he sits down beside her, putting the pills down on the table next to him. She can feel herself getting more and more anxious and she’s ready to reach out and grab the pills from him just so she can take one.

He grabs her hand, “Van’, these- they’re not _anxiety medication_ ,” he enunciates, and she feels the blood drain from her face, “these aren’t something you put a little kid on. Not in the slightest.”

She tenses up a little bit and he squeezes her hand, “What are they?” she breathes, because if anyone would know, it’s Klaus.

He looks down, clearly preparing himself, “They’re sedatives. I mean, they’re _sedatives_ , Vanya. I wouldn’t even _touch_ this stuff,” he says, and she has to squeeze her eyes shut and re-open them just to make sure she’s hearing him correctly.

“Sedatives?”

“Sedatives,” he confirms, squeezing her hand extra tight, “you don’t need to keep taking them, but you can’t go cold turkey.”

She straightens up, looking visibly offended, “The he-!”

“Seven!” he interrupts, and the usage of her number makes her stop short, “You _can’t_. It isn’t safe, it could _kill you_. You can’t,” his voice fades out into something just short of a whisper. 

She looks up at him, confused, “How do I stop, then?” she asks, all logic having left her for the time being.

He reaches out and pulls her against his chest, “Slowly,” he mumbles, kissing her head.

* * *

By the end of the week, Klaus has gone through withdrawal completely, the snow has cleared, and Vanya is down to two pills a day. 

Klaus wakes up to the sun shining through the window for the first time in days, and he takes a moment to wake up before he becomes conscious of _what that means_ for him. He feels like a lead has dropped in his stomach as he sits up.

He and Vanya hadn’t necessarily _discussed when he’d be leaving, but they had discussed why he was there- on his first day, in fact. _It’s snowing and he’d wanted to get clean__. Now, it seemed, he had neither of those problems to deal with. 

He now had a new issue: he’d managed to let himself get attached to his most estranged sibling growing up.

He’s cursing himself for it as he walks into the kitchen and puts on the tea kettle. 

The noise must wake Vanya up, because she stumbles into the kitchen not even two minutes after he does, “Hey,” she yawns, falling into a chair at the table.

“Hey! How’d you sleep?” he asks, putting on his mask- his ‘happy Klaus’ mask, who’s latest use had been to make sure that he didn’t worry his little sister. It seems to have worked so far.

She smiles sleepily, resting her head on her hand, “Okay,” she says, and he must let his mask come off too much, because the next thing she says is, “everything okay?”

He nods, turning and pouring two cups of not-completely-warmed-yet tea, “Fine and dandy, _meine schwester_ ,” he beams, handing her one of the cups of tea.

She nods, taking a sip of it- she doesn’t even complain at the fact that it’s not all the way hot, “Okay. Well, I have a rehearsal today, so, um…” she trails off, her brain too foggy from sleep to remember where she was going with her sentence.

He nods, and starts talking before she can recollect herself, “I’ll be gone before you get back. Promise,” he tries not to look _too_ excited about it- he doesn’t want her to think he isn’t grateful; he honestly couldn’t be more so. 

Her shoulders drop and she tenses, and he doesn’t know exactly what to make of that, “Oh,” she says, looking down at the table, “okay.”

He recognizes that tone- the same tone she’d used when she’d been told she couldn’t train with them. When they left her out during their games. When she’d been told she couldn’t be a part of the Even Numbers Club (which, to be fair, they did eventually allow her in, _thank you very much_ ). 

That’s the tone of _disappointment_. 

He suddenly, on a whim, before Ben can even show up to begin scolding him, he starts to try to mend it on his own, “Or, I don’t have to be,” he says, sitting down across from her at the table.

She shakes her head, still avoiding his eyes, “No, it’s okay. You can go if you want to,” she smiles this smile that he’s recognized to be _her_ mask- brushing it off, pretending like the reason that she’s standing up isn’t because she’s going to go cry on her own.

He reaches out and grabs her hand, which she’d let drag on the table as she stood, “Wait, Vanya,” he says, “wait,” she steps back, sitting back in her chair, “I don’t- I don’t _want to go_ ,” he states, getting frustrated with himself that he’d even _begun_ to let his sister feel that way- like he didn’t _love_ her. “I just- I don’t want to get in your way,” he says softly, squeezing her hand and reaching out for the other one.

She chuckles wetly, and he confirms that _yes, she_ had _been about to go cry_. “What could you _possibly_ be getting in the way of, Klaus?!” she laughs, “You see how it is here, I don’t have anything going on!” 

He smiles, chuckling a little bit, “I- yeah,” he falters a little bit, “I don’t know, I just- I don’t want to _annoy you_ , is all.”

She rolls her eyes, “You don’t _annoy me_ ,” she states, “I like having you around. It’s less lonely,” she looks down and then back up at him, “you should stay.”

He nods, “Alrighty, then. What did you wanna do after work?” 

She laughs at him. Actually, really laughs at him, “You think I remember? It’s seven thirty in the morning. I got up because you’re banging around in our kitchen,” she teases.

He puts his hand on his chest, “ _Our_ kitchen? Oh, Van’, I’m _moist_ ,” he says, and she reaches out to smack his shoulder.

“Do _not_ use that word,” she jokes, “I’m going to go shower, since I’m up,” she says, standing and squeezing his arm before walking off.

* * *

Eleven years later, they show up on the front steps of the home that they’d both run away from, Ben standing beside Klaus, his hand clenched around Vanya’s.

“Well,” Klaus says, clapping his hands together, “let’s go wreak havoc, hmm?”

And they all walk into the Umbrella Academy with an attitude they never would’ve sported before they left.


	2. You always let me down so tenderly

There was a time when Vanya might’ve been a little more scared when walking into a room with Luther and Diego. They both took so much pride in their numbers, and although Diego wanted to be One so badly, he still held himself on a pedestal for having a ‘better’ number than the rest of them. 

This was not one of those times.

And Klaus, well… Klaus, to put it lightly, could not give a damn if his number was higher or lower than anyone else’s. Mostly because before they had numbers, before they were ‘ _The Umbrella Academy_ ’, he was everyone’s favorite. 

Ben was only nervous because everyone thought he was dead.

Walking into the academy was a chore in and of itself, with having to jimmy the lock open and then figure out which of the twelve keys Vanya had put on the chain belonged to the doors. 

Eventually, after standing there, having tried at least seven keys, someone opened the door from the inside.

Vanya’s never seen Diego jump back so far in her _life_. 

It takes her a second to realize that it’s not because of her, and _certainly_ not because of Klaus- who’d chosen one of his least appalling outfits-, but because of Ben. 

She’s also never seen Diego jump on someone so quickly without the intent to harm them. 

Ben looks a little startled- he expected his family to be upset nobody told them that they could see him now, not for them to get so _excited_ about it.

Diego wipes his eyes with his hand before letting go and looking to Klaus and Vanya, “Luther’s being a prick, just so you know,” he says, before walking back inside. The three of the siblings look at each other, smile, and then go inside.

“Awww, I can’t believe he cried-” Klaus chuckles, and Ben punches his arm, giving him a look to _shut up_.

Luther sees them walk in, not processing that Ben’s standing there until a moment later when he looks back up again, “Wait, Ben?” he asks.

Ben, remembering just how mean Luther had been to Vanya when they were younger, has a boost of confidence. “The one and only,” he says, walking into the living room to sit on the couch, “well, not the _only_ , but you know what I mean,” he says, channeling his inner Five.

“You’re alive?” Luther asks, and although he’s wrong, Ben really wants to say ‘duh’ just to mess with him.

Vanya jumps in before he gets the chance, “No, it’s Klaus,” she corrects, giving Ben a pointed look, “he’s learned some new powers he has since we all left,” she says, smiling shyly at all of them.

Without warning, Klaus throws his arm over her shoulders, effectively scaring the living crap out of her, “As has our littlest sister, if I may add?” he announces, and everyone looks up at her, tilted heads and confused gazes directed between her and Klaus.

Diego’s the first one to call it, “Don’t be stupid, Klaus,” he says, more as a warning- Luther’s always been very stuck in the ways of what he’s been told. A sibling with new powers- especially more than _one_ sibling with new powers- may very well cause some structural damage to the academy.

Klaus takes Diego’s comment like a champ, putting his hand to his heart- “Oh, _mein bruder_ , you wound me!” he exclaims, before turning to Vanya, “care to show us some tricks, sister dear?” he asks, and Vanya reluctantly nods, shooting a nervous glance in Luther’s direction before stepping away from Klaus and carefully sending an umbrella hurdling in Diego’s direction- where he catches it with a second to spare.

Luther looks up at her, “What was _that_? You could’ve killed him!” 

Her eyes widen and she looks between him and Diego, “I knew he’d catch it, I wasn’t gonna _kill_ him, Luther, that’s ridiculous.”

“Since when do you fight back?” Diego asks, looking over at her.

Klaus looks at him, stepping towards Vanya and putting his hand on her shoulder, “Since she has awesome powers and two brothers who’ll fight for her.”

“Who has powers?” They turn to see Allison walking into the room.

* * *

Later, they all sit in the living room together, Klaus, Ben, and Vanya trying to explain to the rest of the siblings what’s happened with her powers.

“Wait, have you had _any_ training?” Allison asks.

Klaus answers, seeing that Vanya’s not comfortable, “We’ve tried to help her, but her powers are apparently- well, really strong, and we can’t do much in the apartment.”

Luther looks over to them, “Why didn’t you come to the academy? Aren’t the training rooms still open?” 

“Well, we don’t know,” Ben answers, “not that it’d matter much since she didn’t have a training room.”

Luther sighs, “I just don’t understand how dad _wouldn’t know_ about this. I mean, he tested all of us when we were little,” he says.

Vanya shrugs, “Me neither.”

Allison looks to them, “I might have an idea.”

Klaus turns to her suddenly, as the room had frozen, “Well, do tell, Ally! What’s poor Papa’s secret?” he inquires.

Allison takes a deep breath, leaning forwards and resting on her knees, “Well, when we were younger, he had me do something… odd, I guess,” she pauses, but continues with prompting looks from the others, as if they’re little kids during storytime. “He asked me to rumor you into thinking you were- well, you were ordinary.”

Vanya looks a tad enraged- no, a little more than a tad, as the photos on the walls begin rattling. 

Klaus stands, walking over to sit beside her, “It’s okay, Van’. It’s gonna be okay, just chill yourself out, okay?” he whispers, rubbing her back and quite literally wrapping her up in his arms.

Allison, only a little bit frightened, continues, “We were so little, I didn’t know what it meant. I thought everyone outside the academy had powers, I didn’t know that we _weren’t_ ordinary. Vanya, I’m so sorry,” she whispers, reaching out and putting a hand on her arm.

Vanya’s calmed down a little by now, the walls stilled and the paintings settled. She nods a little bit, Klaus letting go of her and resorting to putting his hand on her knee, “I understand,” she says, looking at him before turning to face her, “you didn’t know.”

Klaus smiles at her, putting his arm around her shoulders and letting her lean into his chest, “Well, you gotta say your thing! Yay, sisters, right?”

Vanya and Allison both smile and Vanya stands, going to give her a hug, “Yay, sisters?”

“Yay, sisters.”


End file.
